


Split // BATIM AU

by DigiArt_Studios



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-05-15 11:38:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14789789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DigiArt_Studios/pseuds/DigiArt_Studios
Summary: Henry goes back to the studio after he gets a letter from his childhood and workfriend Joey Drew. He gets excited and leaves soon after, but the first step he takes in the studio he will regret.





	1. A Frightening Encounter

_"Dear Henry,_  
_It seems like a lifetime since we worked on cartoons together. 30 years_ _really_ _slips away,_ _doesn't_ _it? If_ _you're_ _back in town, come visit the old workshop._ _There's_ _something_ _I_ _need to_ _show you_ _._  
_Your best pal,_  
_**Joey Drew.**_ _"_

 _Henry smiled at the piece of paper he had in his hand. "Joey Drew," he thought. He_ _hadn't_ _heard_ _that name in a while. Joey was one of the few friends he had as a kid, and Henry was_ _pretty_ _sure that he was_ _Joey's_ _only friend throughout his childhood. He could remember that he became friends with Joey over their love for drawing and cartoons. Joey had alot of passion for them, which was one of the main reasons they started the studio._

 _Henry was moving his stuff back into his old house, because he_ _spent_ _alot of time with his parents a few states_ _over_ _, but_ _didn't_ _fully move in with them again. As he was loading the_ _cardboard_ _boxes into his house, filled with all kinds of random things he brought with him, he noticed_ _that_ _the_ _mailbox_ _thing (sorry_ _I_ _don't_ _know what_ _it's_ _called) was up. He_ _gingerly_ _opened the mailbox and took out a 3_ _inches_ _stack of paper._

 _He quickly skimmed through the stack, finding_ _mostly_ _bills, magazines_ _he had_ _no memory of, and the letter_ _which_ _caught his eye. He was really_ _happy_ _to see_ _his friend, especially since he had to_ _leave_ _on such short notice. Henry set the letter on top of a random_ _cardboard_ _box_ _with "_ _Silverware_ _and Utensils" labeled on the side with a black sharpie, and carried_ _it_ _in. All he could think_ _of_ _was Joey. (I swear they_ _aren't_ _gay for_ _eachother_ _.)_  
_~ ● ● ● ~_  
The studio loomed over Henry. It was larger than he remembered and it even covered the Sun behind it. It didn't give him any bad vibes or anything though. He pulled the letter out of his pocket and looked at it. It was a bit crumbled now, having to share the same space with his wallet, but it didn't bother him. He skimmed it over again, then shoved it back in his pocket. He looked at the Studio again. _"Good times,"_ he thought with a smirk, before walking into its doors.

"Joey, I'm here!" Henry called out as he turned around to close the door.

The second he closed the door behind him, he stared in shock.

So.

Much.

Ink.

"Who needs this much ink? What the hell?" Henry muttered to himself, cautiously and slowly taking single steps as he walked into the main area. It wasn't much different then when he left. His first instinct was to go to his desk. As he walked to his desk, the more unnerved and creeped out he felt. He had the feeling something was watching him.

He noticed the other room leading from out of his office. "Huh. They must have took out a wall to make room for more animators," Henry figured, quickly scanning the room with his eyes. He turned around and started to explore. When he got to the break room, he walked in and looked at the obnoxiously huge lever sitting in the center of the wall, surrounded by pedestals with symbols. " _Guess_ _I_ _gotta_ _grab those objects?"_ He thought.

He continued and paused when he saw the corpse of Boris. "Oh my God. . " Henry said, shocked. He covered his mouth to make sure he didn't vomit. He cautiously walked over to the dead Boris, his legs shaking more and more with each step. "Is this the suprise?" Henry asked himself, his voice trembling and rivers of tears welling up in his eyes. He slowly reached his hand out to Boris, before he gently touched the side of his face.

"I'm so sorry for what happened to you," Henry said, before wiping away the tears and just staring at Boris. His attention was so aimed at Boris, that he didn't even notice the ink moving in the corner of the room. When he heard the strange 'sloshes' he turned to find the source of the sound. He took a step back when he saw the abomination in the corner of the room.

It looked like some horror movie version of Bendy. It was so skinny you could see its bones poking out of its "skin" and it was so tall. It was literally slumped over a bit, otherwise its head would be scraping along the ceiling with its deformed horns. Its smile was unnaturally wide and toothy, and its one showing eye was semi realistic, but also cartoony. And the creepiest part of it was that it seemed to be melting. Half of its face was covering in ink. Henry turned to make a run for it. As soon as he started running he could hear the demon's footsteps start as it chased after him.

He was too old for this. Why the hell hasn't he had a heart attack already? With all the stuff that happened before he came there you think he would. Caught in his thoughts, Henry took a wrong turn. It was only after he took the turn was one he noticed was that he took the wrong one. He sweared under his breath and realized that he was running towards the Ink Machine. He jumped over the pipe that was on the ground, feeling something pop in his leg when he landed, and could hear a thud.

The demon probaly tripped over it. He quickly ran to the Ink Machine balcony thing and looked for a weapon. With his scattered thinking he looked at the large battery that was stuck in the battery holder for the Ink Machine. He quickly ripped it out and held it over his shoulder as he pushed his body against the wall near the doorway.

As soon as he saw the demon's hand wrap around the doorway edge, he slammed the battery into the demon. It screamed in pain and the horrid sound causes Henry to cringe. He saw it fall to the floor and twitch a bit. Henry dropped the battery and stepped over it as he tried to exit the room. As soon as he passed the "corpse", he could hear it's disorted chuckle as it started to climb back to its feet.

Henry started to run again, this time he made no mistakes and he was quickly near the exit. He reached out his hand to grab the doorknob then he heard a loud crash as he fell through the ground.  
~ ● ● ● ~  
_I looked at the kid across the class room. He was in a wheelchair and was scribbling away on a peice of paper, probaly drawing. He was known as the_ _Shy_ _Art Kid in my class. Our teacher told us we needed to get a partner for_ _some_ _kind of worksheet about a science project. My friend_ _was_ _absent today, so_ _I_ _stood_ _up_ _and walked_ _to the kid. Joey,_ _I_ _think_ _his name_ _was._

 _Without_ _saying_ _a word,_ _I_ _sat_ _myself_ _down in the desk in front of him. He immeadiatly looked_ _up_ _and looked terrified. He hastily and_ _clumsily_ _grabbed his paper_ _and_ _stuff and turned his wheelchair. "Sorry! I_ _didn't_ _know_ _you_ _wanted_ _this table!" He said, avoiding_ _eye_ _contact with me. I grabbed his shoulder. "_ _It's_ _okay! I want to sit_ _with_ _you." I said with a smile, trying to be polite._

 _He looked at me, before silently putting_ _his stuff_ _back where it was and awkwardly drawing. I noticed what he was drawing straight away. "Oh! Is_ _that_ _Mickey Mouse?" I said,_ _sounding_ _too excited. He_ _nervously_ _nodded. "_ _It's_ _really_ _good! It looks exactly like he does from in the cartoon!" I said._

_"Thanks,"_ _Joey_ _said, weakly, his face turning red from embarrassment._

_I took out a piece of_ _paper_ _I_ _had stuck_ _in between_ _my notebook_ _pages_ _and set it in front of him. It was a drawing of_ _Mickey_ _Mouse_ _I_ _did, but it_ _looked_ _horrible. "I_ _didn't_ _know_ _anybody_ _else like_ _Mickey_ _Mouse anymore,"_ _I_ _said. Joey observed my drawing._

_"That looks good," he_ _nervously_ _said, obviously lieing so_ _I_ _could feel good. "_ _What's_ _your name?" He asked me, looking up at me._

_"Henry,"_ _I_ _said._

_"Nice to meet_ _you_ _Henry."_


	2. 2 // A Familiar Face

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy 4th of July everyone! Sorry for any grammar mistakes and the long wait. Anyway, I hope you guys like this chapter. :)

There was a loud splash as Henry landed in an ocean of ink. His whole body was covered in it as his back hit the floor, but since the thick ink had slowed his fall, it didn't hurt. Holding his breath so he couldn't get ink in his mouth, he turned in the ink to where his feet were touching the ground and stood up. His whole body was drenched in the liquid, but it seemed to slide off like water. The ink was waist high, and it made it hard for Henry to move.

"Ugh, I have to find a way to drain this ink. . . . And a way out," Henry muttered to himself, gradually starting to hate Joey.

Something in the corner of the room caught Henry's eyes: a valve. Henry slowly trudged over to it, struggling to move his legs in the thick and heavy ink. It took him a minute before he got to the valve, and which he continued to turn it.

After the nasty liquid drained, he started down the stairs, and he was greeted with even more ink. He groaned in annoyance, and started the draining process again, and did it a few more times. It was tiring and extremely tedious, but when he finished there was only one way he could go. Through the door that would lead him into Hell. He didn't know how awful things were gonna get, so his ignorance and curiosity led him to open the door.

The second Henry stepped in, his blood ran cold and his heart stopped. There was an inverted pentagram. A pentagram that was made specifically for satanisim and to look like a goat head. "Joey. . . Dear God what were you doing?" Henry said with a shiver. He started to hug the wall as he walked along it, his eyes not leaving the horrific symbol, until he got to the other side of the room.

Once he got there, he found 2 things: an axe and a boarded up door. He picked up the axe. He felt more safe now that he had a weapon in his hand, until he got greeted by a loud crash. He looked in horror as inky veins started to crawl along the walls of the room.

"What the Hell?" Henry shouted, clutching the axe with a tighter grip, and then turning around to see what the crash was about. He turned around just in time to see the pentagram doing an unsettling and dim glow, the door that he went in through was now off of its hinges and lying on the floor, and the demon coming in the room.

When it finished going through the doorway, Henry noticed something. Its body seemed unstable. It was swaying unnaturally from side to side, it was melting more, and it seemed slower.

 _ **"HeNrYyyY~"**_ _It_ attempted to say in a playful way, but executed it horribly. It sounded like two different voices smashed together, one high pitched and joyful, while the other was oddly familiar. Henry didn't get much time to look into it though, when it launched itself at him.

Henry managed to dodge it, and it slammed into the wall, hissing. Without thinking, Henry slammed the axe into its back. It fell to the ground, letting out a horrific screech. Henry looked behind him, and ran out the open doorway. In about 30 seconds, the demon started limp running out of the room, looking extremely pissed.

Henry still had his axe and looked at the demon. It looked even more unstable then before, clumps of ink now fell to floor with disgusting splats, it had to slump over and put a disfigured and melting hand on the ground for balance, and it's face seemed to be melting. It let out a disorted and unnerving 'hiss', before attempting to run at Henry.

Now it was extremely slow, and Henry just took a few steps to his right to dodge. He slammed the axe into the back of its head, then ripped it out, then did that a few times before the demon fell to it's knees, holding the back of its head while screaming.  
  
It didn't have an animalistic screech like before, this time it sounded like a human scream, but slightly off. Henry backed up the other side of the room, shaking and muttering "What the hell-" to himself repeatedly, as the humanlike screech faded.

The clumps of ink that were falling grew bigger until the demon was just 2 large lumps of its inky skin and the rest was a large puddle. Henry watched at the puddle dissolved and dissapeared, along with the veins on the wall, but the 2 lumps remained. He watched as the lumps appeared to be melting for a second, but they weren't.

A thin layer of ink washed off of them like water and he saw something that was highly confusing: A deformed Bendy, and a human who was hunched over and on his knees and arms. Henry couldn't see his face. Bendy tried to get up, and he looked extremely off.

He had one on-model eye, and one cartoony and semi-realistic eye like the demon had, was slightly melting, had a thinner and slightly taller body, a tail, and one twisted foot. Bendy fell down to the ground in his attempt, then noticed the human. His face twisted to anger and pure hatred before he started screaming some swear words at them, but of course they got censored out, since he's still a toon.

The human looked at Bendy, but Henry still couldn't make out who it was. The side of the face he saw was covered in ink. The human threw up some ink, shaking and whimpering, and then started crawling to the corner of the room, covering his face, and starting to sob. The right side of the their face was drenched in ink, along with their right hand.

". . ." Henry was in shock.

Bendy through out some more cuss words, then noticed Henry.

". . . Henry?" He asked, sounding curious and confused. The human immeadiatly froze when he heard Bendy talk. Even the sobbing stopped.

Henry looked at the human, then ran at them. He didn't give a shit who they were, but Bendy seemed dangerous and unstable, so he wasn't gonna take any chances with him. He grabbed the person's hand, not even getting a look at their face, then quickly ran into the satanic room and chopping down the boarded doors, and running into the next area and quickly finding a room and hiding in it.

After that Henry was extremely tired and was panting. He dragged the person to this room to save them from Bendy, since he seemed aggressive, and he still hasn't gotten to see their face. He looked up at them. They were covering their face. They were shaking and we're still whimpering, but not crying anymore.

"Uh, Hello?" Henry said, trying to grab their hands and move it from their face. The person protested by jerking back.

"Come on, there's no reason to hide your face. I just saved you, it's not like I'm gonna chop your head off," Henry chuckled. The person froze for a moment, before finally accepting that he couldn't hide his face forever, and let his hands drop to his legs. Henry jumped back.

"JOEY?!" He shouted, shocked.


	3. Chapter 3 // Small Explanation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't even know how i wrote this so fast. . . So sorry for any grammar mistakes, weird autocorrects, or spelling mistakes. Please note them in the comments!

Henry was a mix of confusion, anger, shock, and happiness when he saw Joey. His old friend was shaking with fear right in front of him, ink covering the right half of his face, along with his right arm. Henry sighed.

"How did all of this even happen?" He groaned.

". . ." Joey was silent. The only answer Henry got was a small mumble that he couldn't understand, and Joey nervously pressing his fingers together and looking down.

"Joey." Henry said with a more serious tone of voice, which got Joey to jump back a bit.

"F-Fine. You remember m-my phobia?" Joey said quietly, looking up at Henry and grinning nervously with a small chuckle.

"Are. You. Kidding. Me?" Henry said, facepalming. Joey's smile quickly faded and he looked back down. Neither of them noticed that the ink seemed to spread about an inch on his body.

"So. . . Your phobia, the one of being alone, dispite the fact that you have major social anxiety, somehow got out of hand in a studio full of peers and workers that you hired and got to know and became friends with, made you do this?" Henry asked.

Joey nodded.

"How?!" Henry shouted, causing Joey flinch back.

"Uh. . ." Joey started to stutter and make random noises as he attempted to speak, before actually looking Henry in the eyes for a second, then starting to shake more, and the ink started to spread some more.

"Uh. . . Joey?" Henry asked. Joey looked at Henry again, not saying anything.

"The ink-" Henry pointed at Joey's face.

Joey froze. He even stopped shaking. He put his hand on his face, the side that used to not have any ink, but now did. "Oh no, oh god, oh no-" Joey started muttering repeatedly. The ink started to spread more, and this time he could feel it.

"Joey, I think you're making it worse!" Joey seemed out of it, not even listening to Henry, and kept muttering the same words.

"JOEY! WHAT HAPPENS WHEN IT SPREADS?!" Henry screamed, putting his hands on Joey's now-inky shoulders, and shaking him, snapping him out of his trance.

"What?!" Joey yelped, jumping back out of Henry's grip, and breathing heavily.

"What happens when it spreads?!" Henry repeated.

"Uh-uh. . .I don't know- I only know that it spreads from stress. . ." Joey said.

Henry stared at him for a second. "Okay- okay. Take some deep breaths Joey and try to calm down. I promise I won't hurt you. As long as you help me get out of here, I promise I won't hurt you."

Joey nodded and took some slow deep breaths to try and calm down. After about a minute of that, Joey's ink started to reduce to its normal size. "Can you try and explain again? But with better detail?" Henry asked. Joey nodded.

"Okay. . . After you left, my social anxiety came back, and for some reason I felt like that the employees weren't my friends. . . And my phobia came in and started to freak me out. People noticed that change and became aware and tried to help, but it just freaked me out more. Then I thought of a stupid way to feel like I had friends or maybe a family. Bring the cartoons to life. In my spare time, I looked into it and found satanisim. I was a little desperate so I did it. Then I got distracted. I wasn't paying attention to problems that were happening in the studio like usual: Broken instruments, low money input, lack of ideas, ect. We eventually ran low on ink. Then I came up with the Ink Machine. It would help the company and my rituals so I got people to build it. I didn't listen to the problems again and employees left because of it. That made me feel more alone and desperate. So I spent all of my time working on the rituals instead of my actual job. Problems got worse, more people left, and then I did it. I brought the toons to life. Most people were angry at me and left. The few that stayed didn't mind and befriended the toons. I didn't feel as alone. . . Until the debt came. Apparently there was a giant debt that I didn't know about, because I never listened. I only had enough money to pay the remaining employees. Everybody threw a party to cheer me up that I didn't even attend. I knew that I was going to be alone. So I hid in the ink machine room on the first floor. Bendy came to try and cheer me up, but it didn't work. Then something inside me just snapped. I thought if I could use the ink from the ink machine because most of it's corrupted, I could merge with Bendy and never be alone again. I attacked Bendy, not letting him leave and turning on the machine and breaking it, causing it to spew some ink at us. I used the ink to forcefully merge with him, and then I used the new body to trap everybody in the studio. . ."

Joey wasn't even looking at Henry anymore. He was looking at the ground, shaking again. He was obviously ashamed of what he'd done. ". . ." Henry was shocked. He didn't even know that it was possible, but apparently it was. Henry patted Joey on the back softly and gave him a reassuring smile. "Come on, Joey. Let's just move on and try and get out of this hellhole." He said.

Joey smirked a bit, trying to look okay, but it was obvious he was not. Henry grabbed his axe and opened the door to leave the room, and Joey followed close behind.

~ ● ● ● ~

_Joey rolled his wheelchair down the sidewalk, his backpack hanging off of the side of it, and he hummed a small tune as he continued to roll down. He slowed down a bit when he heard quick footsteps that were followed by a voice that shouted "Wait!" He turned his head around and saw a running boy. The boy was the same who joined him for the work in the class. Henry. He wondered why he was chasing after him._

_"Wait!" Henry shouted again, finally catching up to Joey, panting and breathing hard. Joey looked at him like he had 3 heads. "Why don't we walk home together?" Henry suggested. Joey shrugged his shoulders and said, "Sure." Henry responded with a big smile as they both talked as they headed to their houses._

_"So! Where do you live?" Henry asked, looking at Joey with his eyes full of curiosity._

_"Uh. . . I live in a culdesac that's a few streets away from here," Joey lied._

_"Oh nice! I just have to take a left here and then I'm home! Well, see you later!" Henry smiled and headed that way._

_"Bye," Joey said quietly, waving then heading to his "home". After about 10 minutes of rolling, Joey stopped in front of a building. "Home sweet home," he whispered to himself. Then headed in. The building was the town's orphanage._

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope you guys liked this! I'll try my best to continue until I finish this whole fic.


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